Education - The social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values.
  • All of the character in Modern Family demonstrates some level of education. The adults and teenagers have obviously had more education, but that is not to say the young kids are not educated as well. They learn a lot through interacting with their families and friends. This can be seen in Lily's case in the episode where she says the F word. Clearly knowledge she has picked up on from her parents.
Schooling - Formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teachers.
  • Schooling can be seen in the lives of all of the children on Modern Family. Haley, Alex, Luke, and Manny all attend school on a regular basis. They are taught by teachers in the atmosphere of their school.
Medicine - The social institution that focuses on fighting disease and improving health.
  • Phil utilizes this institution in the episode where he is suffereing from kidney stones. The pain gets to be so bad that he has to go to the hospital to have them removed. He also has to receive pain medication as well.
Health - A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.
  • Claire Dunphy reveals to Gloria how she is able to maintain good health. Particularly mental. She goes to the shooting range to relieve stress and get away from it all once a week. In the episode however, Gloria thinks Claire does not want to hang out with her because she always makes excuses, but really Claire was covering up what she does to relieve stress which provided for some good humor in the episode.
Tracking- Assigning students to different types of educational programs
  • Manny, Luke, Alex, and Haley all go to school. Also Phil and Mitchell went to college for a degree.
Functional Illiteracy- A lack of the reading and writing skills needed for everyday living.
  • Luke Dunphy is still a little slow when it comes to his reading and writing skills
Social epidemiology- The study of how health and disease are distributed throughout a society's population

Socialized medicine- A medical care system in which the government owns and operates most medical facilities and employs most physicians

modern_family_kids.jpg
All of these kids are receiving or will receive a formal education.
phil_in_pain.jpg
Phil has to take advantage of the medicine practice when he is in severe pain.